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One member of the Columbus Board of Education pushed for board President Carol Perkins to step
down as the head of a special auditing committee after the district’s internal auditor accused
Perkins of trying to cut short a data-rigging investigation.

According to newly released emails, members of the board were set to hold a news conference on
Aug. 2 — a week after The Dispatch reported that district Internal Auditor Carolyn Smith said
Perkins had come to her office and pressured her to end her probe. But the news conference never
occurred as the board apparently couldn’t agree on what to say.

Board member Mike Wiles wanted the board to announce that “President Perkins will be stepping
down as chair of the Audit & Accountability Committee & appointing (insert name) as chair,”
according to an email exchange between Wiles and board member Gary Baker.

“The discussion of Carol stepping down as chair of Audit and Accountability may be appropriate,”
Baker responded. “I am willing to discuss this more.”

Niether Wiles nor Baker would elaborate today. The district’s attorneys released the emails on
Saturday because they pertain to a lawsuit filed by The Dispatch Printing Company that challenges
the legality of seven closed board meetings.

Asked about the emails today, Perkins said she remains chairwoman of the audit committee and
president of the board of education, and “that all of the board members have the best interest at
heart regarding the work of the district.” The internal auditor reports to the committee, which
directs the office’s work and reviews audits.

Perkins has said she never tried to pressure Smith to drop her investigation, saying in July
that “any statement to the contrary is absolutely untrue.”

Another Wiles email on July 27 asked for a private meeting to discuss “personnel issues”
involving three employees, including Superintendent Gene Harris. Ohio law allows for private “
executive sessions” to consider the status of an employee, including dismissal, discipline,
demotion and pay.

Perkins said the board has never discussed firing or disciplining Harris in response to the
data-rigging allegations.

On Sept. 3, Wiles sent another email to the rest of the board asking for a private session to
consider the dismissal or discipline of an unnamed employee; the board did not agree to the
request.

Emails show that board members W. Shawna Gibbs and Hanifah Kambon had helped draft a statement
that never was issued. Gibbs wouldn’t answer questions about it today; Kambon couldn’t be
reached.

Wiles berated their prepared statement as worthless and said it would be interpreted as “
circling the wagons.”

In another email, Baker commented that “outside actors” caused the board “to throw out its long
held plan to go back to the ballot in November.” A committee recommended last summer that the
district postpone the property-tax request after some members worried that the then-brewing data
investigation would hurt the measure with voters.

The board has never discussed at a public meeting that it had decided on a November 2012 levy,
saying publicly that no decision had been made.